PHILADELPHIA — The day after ICE agents descended on Complete Autowash Philly, taking seven undocumented workers to jail, the raid already seemed to be way in the rearview mirror.

Half a dozen employees used towels and rags to shine a black SUV, one man wiping the hood, others cleaning the windows, all of them bundled head-to-toe except for their bare hands, left exposed to the winter wind.

A reporter asked them about their missing coworkers.

"It's just really sad, poor guys, they were just trying to make some money to feed themselves and support their families," said Sauri, 57, who is in the United States legally but feared retaliation if his surname was published.

The advocacy group New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia said all seven men were being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a detention center in Clearfield County.

But questions lingered as soap and suds flew at the reopened North Philadelphia car wash Wednesday.

Why would Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the lead enforcement agency in President Donald Trump's plan to deport millions of migrants across the United States, target a car wash in Juniata Park?

ICE declined to say. But people familiar with the federal immigration system say the raid could have been triggered in a couple of ways — and might not have been designed as a raid at all.

Ricky Palladino, an attorney at Palladino, Isbell & Casazza LLC, a leading Philadelphia immigration law firm, is not involved in the case but said he suspected ICE targeted one or two workers, perhaps because they had been issued final orders of deportation.

Then, at the car wash, ICE was able to identify others who were undocumented and took them into custody, too, making what are known as collateral arrests.

A car wash can be an inviting location for enforcement, Palladino said. The workers are outdoors, so ICE agents can approach them freely, without a warrant. The officers need not worry about trying to get into a house, or that there could be weapons inside a home.

It's likely ICE surveilled the property, he said, deciding it looked like a place that could have multiple undocumented workers.

"By and large," Palladino said, "that was how they operated during the first Trump presidency" — the location of the targeted immigrant taking agents to a particular business, rather than the business itself being the focus of the operation.

"I wouldn't even use the term raid," Palladino said. "It's a way to make collateral arrests."

In a separate interview, Steven Morley, a retired Philadelphia immigration court judge, agreed that a car wash is attractive to ICE because agents do not have to try to enter a building. In this case agents likely got "a tip about people without documentation, who already have orders of removal," said Morley, now of counsel at Landau, Hess, Simon, Choi & Doebley, a Philadelphia firm that exclusively handles immigration cases.

ICE initially said it could not provide information about the arrests, and the agency has declined to comment on its activities around the region during the last week.

On Friday, ICE issued a statement saying it had conducted a worksite enforcement operation at the car wash, based on allegations that employees were being subjected to labor exploitation. The seven who were arrested now face deportation. Six were originally from Mexico and one from the Dominican Republic, the agency said.

Enforcement and Removal Operations Philadelphia acting field office director Brian McShane said the operation "underscores our determined commitment to national security and public safety."

"We were able to apprehend individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States," he said in a statement. "These operations highlight the dedication and diligence of our officers and agents in protecting our communities from potential threats."

The 21-year-old son of one of the men arrested at the car wash, who was also working there, said agents appeared suddenly, telling people to put their hands up. One worker tried to run, then froze, and was quickly grabbed by ICE, he said.

All the workers were taken into the business office and asked to produce papers showing they were in the United States legally, according to the son, Jonathan, who is a U.S. citizen, born at Temple University Hospital. He asked that his and his father's last name not be published lest it endanger undocumented family members.

Jonathan said his father, Oscar, 46, had been pursuing permanent lawful status, a green card. A court date for his father is set for Feb. 10, he said.

Oscar came to California from Mexico in 1998, hoping to continue his university schooling but finding the cost too high. In Philadelphia, he used the car-detailing skills he learned in the West to make a living, Jonathan said.

"My dad, he's OK," Jonathan said, the two men having spoken several times since the arrests. "We always had a plan. ... I'm old enough to handle the weight on my shoulder. A lot of people who have little kids, who is gonna provide for them?"

Any of the roughly 13 million people who are in the United States without legal permission can be arrested and deported at any time, though limited federal money and manpower typically force presidents to set priorities. Often presidents direct less attention toward those who have no criminal record, have been in the country a long time, or have U.S.-citizen spouses or children.

Now that has changed, Morley said, as the Trump administration authorizes ICE agents "to remove as many people as they can, as quickly as they can."

Trump almost immediately rescinded a directive that barred ICE from taking action at churches, schools, hospitals, and other "sensitive locations," and many migrants in the Philadelphia region are now cautiously limiting where they go.

Morgan Bailey, a former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and now a partner at Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, said a car wash can be attractive to ICE for several reasons.

For one, it allows for a visible, public action, demonstrating strict enforcement while not disrupting more politically sensitive industries such as agriculture or health care. It's a manageable target for a team of agents, easily contained and surrounded. And, as a smaller business, it may be less prepared or have fewer legal resources to challenge ICE enforcement.

Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said his office was getting calls from worried constituents, and he had arranged for lawmakers to be briefed by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and prominent local advocacy groups on Monday.

Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, State Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D., Philadelphia), and State Rep. Jose Giral (D., Philadelphia), who represent the area where the car wash is located, said the business had no violations of license or inspection, nor posed any danger to the neighborhood, calling the raid "an unwarranted and unnecessary disruption of our community."

Twenty members of the General Assembly and City Council condemned the arrests, lamenting the loss of "seven neighbors, seven family members, seven people who had the courage and the tenacity to move and build a better life."

"Violent raids and deportations bring fear and chaos to our neighborhoods, making all Philadelphians less safe," they said in a statement. "These acts have no place in this city."

New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia said most, if not all, of the men arrested had been in the United States for years. It has lent legal support to Oscar as he pursued lawful permanent residency.

Pennsylvania business records show Complete Autowash Philly opened in 2007 and identify the company president as David Lee.

His son, Jeffrey Lee, 35, said he was heading to work at the wash when a phone call popped up through the car's Bluetooth. The caller ID read "Dad," but it was an ICE officer on the line.

"They said, 'We are here to take some illegals. If you don't hear from us, then don't worry about it,'" Lee said in an interview. "I thought: What do you mean, 'Don't worry about it'? These are my people."

Lee said he is a first-generation Korean American, and his father, David, does not speak much English. Jeffrey Lee said the business hired undocumented people because no U.S. citizens would take the jobs, given the work's physical demands and discomfort.

"I thought that the administration was going after violent criminals, but these people are innocent, honest, hardworking people," he said.

Under U.S. law, employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants can face civil fines and criminal penalties, including jail time, if they are shown to have engaged in a "pattern or practice" of violations, according to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Dutchess Laface — who provided only her nickname for fear for retaliation — was at work at a nearby car dealership when ICE arrived Tuesday morning. She recognized two agents as women who had visited the dealership several times in the last two weeks, asking questions about the neighborhood but never test-driving a car.

Agents demanded she close her business as they took action at the wash, she said, and she complied, feeling she had no choice.

On Wednesday she wiped tears as she discussed car-wash employees she had known for more than a decade.

"They work a lot and are just trying to get a better life," she said. "Some came running for safety as children because cartels wanted to take them away from their families."

The owner of a nearby barbershop, who out of fear would give only his last name, Pesado, said he was at home when a phone call informed him of the arrests.

"They are such hardworking people," Pesado said. "You come in at 7 a.m. in freezing weather or extreme heat, and they are here, always working, always ready to clean day after day."

Now, he said, he feels "a loss in the community."

Sauri, 57, came to Philadelphia from the Dominican Republic in 2004, and washing cars was the only work he could find to support his family. It's the same for those who were arrested, he said.

"This is the kind of job not many want because it's too cold," Sauri said, his hands slowly turning a frozen pink as he washed a floor mat. "But they were here doing it."

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Contributing to this article were staff writers Fallon Roth, Sean Collins Walsh, Ximena Conde, Ryan W. Briggs, and Anna Orso.

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